The largest Claude Monet retrospective the world has seen ended on a historic high as France's most visited art exhibition in more than 40 years.

In all 913,064 visitors flocked to Paris' Grand Palais on the Champs-Elysées to view 'Claude Monet (1840-1926)', gathering some 170 tableaux of the much-loved impressionist painter from around the globe. The show closed on Monday night.

The last time such attendance levels were beaten in France was for a 1967 exhibition on the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen at the Petit Palais, which attracted 1.2 million visitors but over a much longer period – six months instead of four.

Previously the most popular art exhibition in recent years was 'Picasso and the Masters', which pulled in 780,000 visitors in 2009....